netanyahu and king abdullah of jordan. the focus on 0 the end game in syria and the threat from iran. this is going to occupy much of the president's time. >> reporter: it certainly will. if you look right now at the region, syria is imploding. it is exporting refugees. it is exporting instability. israel feels very threatened, very unsure about its future. that's obvious by the way they are walling themselves in psychologically and physically. and i think the president went there to give israel a big hug. some people in the region think that he went too far, that he went too far to embrace dynism as an ideology not just the state of israel, the palestinians generally were disappointed with the trip. nothing concrete coming out of it. the idea was to make israel feel secure in an increasingly insecure region. >> all right, richard engel, just back from the region. he's in new york this morning. thank you very much, richard. to david] and e.j. dionne. what did the president accomplish in terms of how did he perform? that's